Steam Early Access: Your rights when game development stops

June 5, 2014 – Article

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The legal perspective on Early Access

Jesse Saivar, a partner and the chair of the intellectual property department at law firm Greenburg Glusker, discussed the legal implications of Early Access and what it means to Steam customers, via Skype.

Saivar explained that the Federal Trade Commission is the body responsible for monitoring business practices, with Section 5 of the FTC Act prohibiting “unfair and deceptive practices.”

“What Valve and Steam really have to be careful of is that they’re not doing anything that would be deceiving consumers,” explained Saivar.

Saivar took a look through the Early Access page (as it appeared on May 22) in order to gauge whether Valve was “giving consumers enough information for them to understand that there are these risks.”